MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[ManillaToad]

I wonder how the Royals would react to having to switch divisions if the A's moved somewhere east

[The_Admiral]

10 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

And pretty much everything around the bay is pretty crammed in with things that would be difficult and expensive to modify. San Francisco itself is only 49 square miles and there really isn’t an inch left to build on. It’s a lot of the same in the East Bay and South Bay, and any of the land left is pretty much in a semi desert climate. If they ever did consider going to go that far out east, they might as well just move to Sacramento at that point. 

 

Right before the financial crisis, I remember a lot of talk about how more people would be doing daily suburban-Sacramento-to-SF commutes to the extent that they would converge into one metropolitan area like Washington-Baltimore. I thought that was pretty crazy. Turns out housing in San Francisco has only gotten more insane.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Nothing unites people across the aisles like housing discrimination. Move the A's elsewhere in the Bay, but make sure to call them the Alameda NIMBYs.

[Red Wolf]

Crap, forgot to do my bit. Move the A's to Little Rock! Or Memphis. Whichever. Alternatively make them a traveling team that goes to all of the cool minor league parks, one of which might be near me.

 

More importantly, how can I believe this is anything when the A's have been threatening to move forever? I guess at some point it's probably real sort of like all of the doomsday predictions are going to be closer to real than the last one.

[LMU]

1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Nothing unites people across the aisles like housing discrimination. Move the A's elsewhere in the Bay, but make sure to call them the Alameda NIMBYs.

The funny thing about Alameda is that they could theoretically put the stadium in the decommissioned naval air base (the one made famous on Mythbusters) but with the only access to Alameda being a couple small bridges from the bad part of Oakland that wouldn’t happen.

[Alex Houston]

On 5/14/2021 at 5:04 PM, McCall said:

It will always be big brother (SF)/little brother (Other), but I believe it can work. It just seems that, now, San Jose is the ideal second city to San Francisco. So while it's very possible, it's just not probable given circumstances that are business-related and not necessarily market viability-related.

 

This comment conjures up an interesting question: In the same MSA with 8 million as I pointed out before, what city is considered second to San Fran? I mean, San Fran isn't even that big, as Fiddy pointed out, from square miles and population, but it's always included in the Top 3 cities when you start talking west coast markets. You'd automatically think Oakland was runner-up because of the sports teams, Berkely, proximity to SF, etc. But in the last 20 years, it really seems like San Jose has leapfrogged them.

And on that point, San Jose feels like one of the weirdest cities that has prospered in the last thirty years. Like, despite rooting for their hockey team, their city honestly seems kinda drab, like a bunch of suburbs lumped together and I know it's silly saying that since that's all SoCal is too, but there's just a different feel and impression of that spot, at least to an outsider like me. 

[tp49]

4 hours ago, Alex Houston said:

 

This comment conjures up an interesting question: In the same MSA with 8 million as I pointed out before, what city is considered second to San Fran? I mean, San Fran isn't even that big, as Fiddy pointed out, from square miles and population, but it's always included in the Top 3 cities when you start talking west coast markets. You'd automatically think Oakland was runner-up because of the sports teams, Berkely, proximity to SF, etc. But in the last 20 years, it really seems like San Jose has leapfrogged them.

And on that point, San Jose feels like one of the weirdest cities that has prospered in the last thirty years. Like, despite rooting for their hockey team, their city honestly seems kinda drab, like a bunch of suburbs lumped together and I know it's silly saying that since that's all SoCal is too, but there's just a different feel and impression of that spot, at least to an outsider like me. 

San Jose has the largest population of the Bay Area cities and is now the third largest city in the state, San Francisco is second and Oakland is a a distant third.  San Jose is kind of drab and the downtown isn't impressive, probably because of the airport approach path right over it but there's a lot of money there that came in from Silicon Valley.  San Francisco is and always will be iconic, San Jose is second now, and nowadays all Oakland seems to be is a crime ridden cesspool. 

[The_Admiral]

A friend of mine moved out to Oakland and lived there for about six months. She said it felt like a real city and reminded her of Chicago while San Francisco felt like an adult theme park. And this was years before San-Francisco-as-adult-theme-park really set in.

[Walk-Off]

https://ballparkdigest.com/2021/05/13/with-as-in-play-what-comes-next/

Edited May 17, 2021 by Walk-Off
Clarifying the weblink

[-kj]

On 5/15/2021 at 6:01 PM, Alex Houston said:

like a bunch of suburbs lumped together

 

I only moved here a few months before the pandemic hit, but I've said multiple times that San Jose feels like a big strip mall.

[Walk-Off]

https://ballparkdigest.com/2021/05/17/after-ultimatum-oakland-officials-say-they-will-consider-as-ballpark-plan/

[colortv]

On 5/15/2021 at 6:01 PM, Alex Houston said:

 

This comment conjures up an interesting question: In the same MSA with 8 million as I pointed out before, what city is considered second to San Fran? I mean, San Fran isn't even that big, as Fiddy pointed out, from square miles and population, but it's always included in the Top 3 cities when you start talking west coast markets. You'd automatically think Oakland was runner-up because of the sports teams, Berkely, proximity to SF, etc. But in the last 20 years, it really seems like San Jose has leapfrogged them.

And on that point, San Jose feels like one of the weirdest cities that has prospered in the last thirty years. Like, despite rooting for their hockey team, their city honestly seems kinda drab, like a bunch of suburbs lumped together and I know it's silly saying that since that's all SoCal is too, but there's just a different feel and impression of that spot, at least to an outsider like me. 

 

Considering there are no pro baseball teams in Sacramento or San Jose, I'm sure the Bay Area teams draw some fans from both those metros.

 

We're talking nearly 10 million in the SF-Oakland-San Jose combined statistical area along with another 2 million in Sacramento.

[Chromatic]

22 hours ago, -kj said:

 

I only moved here a few months before the pandemic hit, but I've said multiple times that San Jose feels like a big strip mall.

I've never been but generally speaking that tends to be what happens when a city sees a rapid expansion in population/economy/infrastructure etc.

[Joke Insurance]

On 5/14/2021 at 6:02 PM, tp49 said:

No corporate base to draw from, no stadium site, no political will to build a stadium suitable for an MLB team, and murderous summer temperatures just to name a few reason why not.

 

Could Sutter Health Park be upgraded to MLB standards?

[Walk-Off]

https://ballparkdigest.com/2021/05/18/as-schedule-fact-finding-trip-in-las-vegas/

[The_Admiral]

19 hours ago, Chromatic said:

I've never been but generally speaking that tends to be what happens when a city sees a rapid expansion in population/economy/infrastructure etc.

 

Toronto and Vancouver are notable exceptions, which built up more than they built out (though the GTA sprawls quite a bit as well). 

[ManillaToad]

If they move I hope it's to Vancouver that'd be sick

[tp49]

2 hours ago, Joke Insurance said:

 

Could Sutter Health Park be upgraded to MLB standards?

No, supposedly it can't at least not capacity wise.  Also doesn't overcome any of the other issues with the market to make Sacramento viable for MLB.

[Wings]

Vegas is rapidly becoming the sports hub of hubs. Already has the NFL, NHL & WNBA. Cramming in the Pac-12, NBA, MLB & possibly MLS in the next few years. With Super Bowls, All-Star Games & Wrestlemania to come. 

[who do you think]

6 hours ago, Wings said:

Vegas is rapidly becoming the sports hub of hubs. Already has the NFL, NHL & WNBA. Cramming in the Pac-12, NBA, MLB & possibly MLS in the next few years. With Super Bowls, All-Star Games & Wrestlemania to come. 

 

With a regional population of (not even) 2.5 million expected to support all of it, a high number of them being off-hours hospo workers.